Forum : Pregnancy

Hiya :) I've not been in the same situation as you regarding going back to college/work and am lucky enough to have been able to stay at home with my babies but as far as feeding goes I know a lot of people successfully do combined feeding. When I had my son I wanted to breastfeed and he just wasn't getting enough so I topped him up with formula which was fine for a while but I was then told by midwife that I had to choose one or the other and as I didn't feel my little boy was getting enough breastmilk I chose formula. Looking back I wish I had carried on as I was doing. Have you spoken to your midwife about it? Also have you checked with your college that they don't have any facilities for you to go and express somewhere? I know it's not ideal but I think you need to keep expressing to keep your milk flowing? Sorry can't be more help xx

combine feeding is perfectly possible. you will be able to breastfeed on the days you are with baby and in the morning or evenings (if time allows) and overnight. your body produces milk in response to need so introducing formula will mean your milk supply will be reduced but you should still have enough for the feeds you are going to breastfeed for.

the only difficulty you may face is that some babies do not accept the bottle after having been breastfed, so in order to minimise that risk you could introduce a bottle straight from birth, however doing has it's own risks of reducing your milk either through expressing too early or introducing formula.
it is alawys going to be hard but if you were to choose to go down the formula route altogether when you go back to college then dont feel bad about it - both of mine have ended up on formula within days but they both still had some breastmilk and they are both very happy little girls!
i combine fed my first from birth to 3 weeks, not through choice but necessity due to her illness. it made me lose my milk but only because i had to couldnt give it the recommended 4-6 weeks exclusive breastfeeding in order to establish my milk supply. same thing happened with my 2nd child (except this time it was me who was ill) and again i lost my milk.

I'll speak to my midwife next week about it, I'm not overly concerned about ending up bottle feeding but would really like to breastfeed for as long as possable. College has been idiots to me through out this pregnancy and have made me feel bad about even being there as my teachers keep calling me to one side about it! The pressure to go back as soon as I can is hard to cope with. The thing that I'm really concerned about is leaving my baby with strangers at only 6 weeks :( don't want to leave him with out me or his dad but there is no choice. Thanks for your advice though. X